Almond Eyes, Lotus Feet

I’ve heard it said by other spa cognoscenti that most spa goers really don’t care about the origins of their spa treatments—the hows and whys of the benefits—that they don’t have the time and all they care a hoot about is that they leave feeling good.

I tend to disagree. I think the advantages of being enlightened to the sometimes spiritual/mystical/magical bases for treatments can be compared to the Slow Food or eating-locally movements whose missions—I’m paraphrasing liberally here—are knowing where your food came from as a deeper way of enjoying it. As in: I raised this cow, I slaughtered this cow and I will now eat this cow.

With spas, I think that the more we’re groomed to appreciate the ritual aspects as part of the inherent healing process, the better each new treatment will help us to develop a more highly attuned sense of how our bodies are responding or what they need—not to mention learning to recognize when we’re getting a quality treatment vs. a hack job. It will also raise our body awareness such that we will grow into partnership with our practitioners. No more handing ourselves over like a slab of meat.

Here ancient cultures have it over Westerners. To that end, I'm recommending a book that has not yet even hit the bookstores in the US, but has been a bestseller in India, called “Almond Eyes, Lotus Feet,” by Sharanda Dwivedi and Shalini Devi Holkar, both from Mumbai. (The latter is a princess through marriage. How's that for magical thinking?) The book, a fictional memoir, weaves the stories of one Indian princess and her beauty secrets with cultural insights and, as only India can depict, colorful photos. The book shares ancient remedies for keeping your hair shiny, skin soft and even includes a glossary of all the plants, spices and herbs to get you from teenage acne (papaya-mint tea) to post-natal strength (cress and rosewater) to menopause. (Though I'm not sure Indian women get the sorts of menopausal symptoms Western women fall prey to and I suspect diet and natural remedies may have something to do with that.)

Why this book? For Indian women, beauty is tradition. Even in the poorest parts of India as they work the fields or carry heavy burdens—real and psychic—women wear beautiful bangles and bright colors and have shiny shiny hair. Their hands are hennaed and their faces dance with splashes of color. Is this inner beauty penetrating outward or vice versa? Either way, I think we have much to learn from them.

"Almond Eyes, Lotus Fee" will be in stores this month. In fact, as I write this, according to Harper Collins website, the countdown is exactly 12 days, 10 hours, 34 minutes and 23. . .22. . .21 second away.